Verdant View - February 2025

A Love Affair With Nature

As the new year begins, we suddenly find ourselves in February. Traditionally a time to express love, appreciation and to celebrate connections that bring us joy, this year powerful expressions were shared with me, and I would like to share them with you.

From my niece Vicki in Sacramento, CA:

When I reflect on this year it feels like a tough but compassionate lesson in uncertainty. The first half of 2024 felt like a perpetual limbo. A purgatory of back-to-back pregnancy losses and trying to regain a sense of direction in life while navigating a profoundly silent grief.

The second half of the year is living with breast cancer. My body forever altered. My long-term health is promising, but ultimately without guarantees. The disruption of this diagnosis taught me how to parent myself. To give myself the love and patience I was saving for a child.

This year I have learned to prioritize my body’s deeper needs. To savor slowing down and to embrace restoration. My sense of purpose has evolved beyond a type of striving that leads to chronic dissatisfaction with the present moment. I now see and experience the beauty in stillness and the unknown, both of which can create a space for deeper fulfillment.

Nature has also widened my perspective this year. I found inspiration in trees, other species and resilient landscapes which showed me how to experience and have a relationship with our TBD time on this planet. I can work towards growth while also appreciating simply existing without wanting more.

I end this year with the belief that my life as it exists today provides all I need for a beautiful and meaningful life. I’m happy to be here.

From Chaos Theory:

“There are few things more chaotic than the beat of a human heart … speeding up, slowing down, pretty face, a flight of stairs. It’s always changing depending on what’s happening to us out there. It’s an erratic son-of-a-bitch. But underneath all of that mess there is in fact a pattern, a truth, and it is love. The most important thing about love is that we choose to give it, and we choose to receive it, making it the least random act in the entire universe. It transcends blood. It transcends betrayal and all the dirt that makes us human.” (writes Daniel Taplitz)

What to plant in February

The weather is chilly at night, but clear and sunny during the day. The few summer edibles that still exist, like tomatoes, are struggling, trying to give tiny fruits hoping to ripen enough to pick. The deciduous trees and plants are becoming even more seasonally colorful and the edibles and ornamentals that love the chill are getting stronger quickly. Daytime temperatures make working in the garden very enjoyable.

If you want to grow tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant, start these indoors around February. Around April you should start watching the weather and, as soon as it is warm enough, go ahead and transplant those into the ground.

It is still cold at night, but warmer in the morning. Pruning now will bring back many plants that are looking a little sad, encouraging new growth. Look for Iris, Heliotrope, Pentas, primrose and snapdragons at the viveros. Now is the time to put radishes, carrots, Swiss chard, kohl rabi, leeks, and beans (wax, runner and bush) in the garden. For flower growers, start morning glory, evening primrose, Liatris, Clarkia and tuberous Begonias in pots. It’s an excellent time to get the garden cleaned up and ready for the hot, dry months and the new things you will be planting. Don’t forget to deadhead and water and keep up with your compost.

Irrigation should be reduced, not stopped, as plant photosynthesis slows down and cold weather dries plants out. Water less frequently but just as deeply to assure that the full root systems are hydrated.

“When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.”

– Aldo Leopold